2018 Americas Partner Summit

The Americas Partner Summit 2018 was held on Tuesday, October 16 at MPOWER Cybersecurity Summit. It was a day filled with McAfee and partner leadership coming together to collaborate on McAfee’s partner strategy, product portfolio, programs, and more. Here are some of the highlights:

The Audience

338 partners

225 VAR, Disti, MSP, etc.

35 OEM

78 SIA

28% Executive-Level

46% Director-Level

26% Technical or Consultant-Level

McAfee Partner of the Year Awards

I invited the McAfee leadership team to the stage and we recognized 25 partners with awards for excellence and innovation in security. We welcomed DJ Miss Ninja to have some fun while we celebrated this elite group of partners for the work they’ve accomplished through innovative solutions for better customer outcomes, selling into net new logo accounts, and more. You can view the full list of winners here.

Create the Possible

As you know, McAfee has a vast ecosystem of partners – professional services, solution providers, service providers/systems integrators, original equipment manufacturers, security innovation alliance, and distribution. In 2017, I challenged you, our partner community, to collaborate with each other, and with McAfee, to deliver innovative solutions for better customer outcomes. And, wow did you deliver! Throughout the day, we showed seven short videos highlighting the innovation from unique partners in the Americas. Thank you to the partners who stepped out to document their success. The work that the McAfee Partner community has delivered in the last year is truly a testament that we can Create the Possible when we work together.

Key Takeaways

Partners heard program, product, and corporate strategy from our C-Level executives, and had the opportunity to dig deeper into the information through ample Q&A throughout the day. While we took numerous questions from the audience, our executives had some key call to actions from the partners.

To read about the key takeaways, download the slides from the various presentations, etc. please click here to visit the partner portal Partner Summit 2018 page.

To Summarize

Partner Summit is where our partners go beyond the keynotes. Innovation, collaboration, and momentum is what will allow us to Create the Possible. The annual Partner Summit event provides a space where McAfee and McAfee Partners come together to build momentum to get us to the next possibility.

If you were unable to attend, I hope to see you next year. If you attended, I sincerely thank you and hope you walked away with action items that we can accomplish together.

Let’s go create the possible! Together is power.

About the author: Ken McCray

Ken McCray is Head of Channel Sales and Operations for the Americas at McAfee. In this role, McCray is responsible for all channel-related business, generating revenue exceeding $1 billion. McCray is nearing 30 years of experience in the high-tech industry and is a highly respected channel veteran with a wealth of field expertise.

Over the years McCray has been recognized for countless industry awards. Most recently, he was named one of CRN’s 2018 Top 50 Most Influential people and 2018 Top 25 Channel Chiefs.

McCray began his career at McAfee in 1993 as a Channel Account Manager. During his tenure, he has been known for many milestones in transforming the channel organization. Some of those milestones include: creation of the accelerated deal registration program and portal, which is now used globally by over 30,000 partners; expanding our routes-to-market through McAfee Security Innovation Alliances and Managed Services Providers; and launching the Partner Care team in Bangalore to provide back-office support to more than 8,500 reseller partners and distributors. Additionally, McCray is an advocate for diversity and equality in the technology industry and serves as McAfee’s executive sponsor of Women of the Channel.

McCray received his bachelor’s in computer science from DeVry University and an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology.